Johann F. A. Brauns, who died in 1851, was pastor at Oesselse, Germany, and author of the book, Zur Verständigung über den Anabaptismus oder gemeinfassliche Widerlegung der Wiedertäufer zum ernsten Bedenken ihrer selbst und zur Warnung der protestantischen Gemeinde des Vaterlandes vorgelegt von I. F. Brauns mit einem Vorwort des Herrn Konsistorialrats und General-Superintendenten Dr. theol. Bauer in Elze zur Unterstützung eines angehenden "vaterlosen, gänzlich unbemittelten Missionszöglings" (Hildesheim, 1844). This book is a warning in a warm, friendly tone, in the form of letters to a young friend Eduard, who wants to join the Anabaptists, to all Protestants against this transfer. The author apparently does not have reference to the Mennonites, for he never mentions them, but to the Baptists, whose origin he erroneously places in the Reformation period. When he relates that "the daughter of an Anabaptist who had received communion from an orthodox preacher, was given nothing to eat because she had not gone to a Christian church, but had drunk the devil's brew in a cave of darkness," this would scarcely fit a Mennonite family in Hannover Province. Beyond this, the book is chiefly a long-winded justification and glorification of infant baptism.